


footfalls echo in the memory

by theriveroflight



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Getting Back Together, Letters, Protective Parents, Psychic Abilities, Psychometry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25576930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: He hopes that it’s her. He hopes that it isn’t. He doesn’t know what he wants.
Relationships: Luka Couffaine & Kagami Tsurugi, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 10
Kudos: 38





	footfalls echo in the memory

**Author's Note:**

> First Lukanette fic! This was started as an assignment for school, involving literary devices and using a Writer Igniter to generate a prompt. The prompt I got was Psychic/Footprints/A letter left by a mysterious stranger/A small cottage by a body of water. I took some liberties with each of these.
> 
> Disclaimer: I am not an expert on psychics. All of my knowledge of psychometry is from The Raven Cycle, which is a fictional book series and may not be entirely accurate, I have no idea how much research Stiefvater did when writing it.
> 
> Title from "Burnt Norton" by T.S. Eliot.

Footprints are eternally etched into the dirt path to the psychic’s seashore cottage. As she approaches the cottage, her footsteps fall into the prints locked into the dirt. Everyone eventually does — no matter how tall or short, their footsteps will fall into the ones on the path as though some kind of magic is guiding their feet.

She leaves a letter inside the mailbox near the front door, and then retreats.

The footprints were facing towards the door — but when she retreats, the footprints face towards the end of the path, away from the sea and the door, so her feet continually fall into them naturally.

* * *

In the morning, the psychic wakes to the shifted footprints, and knows that someone has come. The footprints turn expectantly towards him. He chuckles and opens his mailbox.

But the moment he grabs the envelope, a series of memories hit him — snapshots of a letter written by night in candlelight, a pen with black ink, a moonlight walk to the cottage he called home.

He hopes that it’s her. He hopes that it isn’t. He doesn’t know what he wants. 

But maybe the cards will help.

He turns to his tarot deck, shuffling the cards slowly, the motion feeling like a blanket of comfort.  _ Am I still in love?  _ he asks them, the question the only thing on his mind as he shuffles the cards.

He spreads out the deck, and withdraws a single card.

_ Only your heart knows for certain. _

He should read the letter.

When he opens the letter, he’s hit by another tidal wave of flashes of memory - the disapproval, the sneaking around, moonlight streaming through windows.

He looks down, and he only sees catches of phrases. 

_ Still love— _

_ Want to get back together— _

_ Sorry— _

_ We were both hurt— _

_ Yours, forever and always, Marinette _

He folds up the paper. She purposefully loaded the letter with memories and emotions so he  _ would  _ pick up on it. He can barely read it without picking up those memories.

He needs to go to the office for work. He doesn’t take appointments at his house — the practice is with someone more adept at reading the future than he is. The two of them make a good pairing, past and present. Bring in a relic for Luka to get the past, ask Kagami a question of the future.

Kagami is already there when he arrives. “Ah, so you are going to come. I did anticipate a large influx of customers today, so I hope you brought your tarot deck.”

“You know I’m not as good as you,” he quips.

“You don’t have to flatter me, Luka. We both have our specialties. I certainly don’t have the same abilities as you. Your psychometry is stellar.”

The bell on the door rings to announce the arrival of their first customer. “Past or future?” they ask the customer simultaneously, before Lucas looks up.

“Oh,” he exhales as he realizes who she is. He looks at the scarf in her hand.

“Past,” Marinette’s mother resolutely declares.

“Come with me.”

His office is only a few steps away from where they stand. Kagami remains at the front desk, to take any customers that wait.

“What brings you here, Mrs. Cheng?” he asks.

“The scarf holds the answers.”

She places it on the table between them. He takes a deep breath, and then touches the fabric. It’s a homemade scarf, trailing a younger Mrs. Cheng throughout her childhood. As she grows up, the scarf doesn’t get any longer — but it was too long for her childhood self, so perhaps she just grew into it. There are echoes of arguments, of Mrs. Cheng’s parents disapproving of her marrying a Caucasian, of a secret wedding with only one witness and the judge to notarize the papers. And then it goes dark for a long time, until the memories stop at what’s today, being dragged around in a city.

“They didn’t approve of your choices,” Luka says, and he is just  _ beginning  _ to understand why Mrs. Cheng has come today. This is an apology. “I accept your apology.”

“I only realized how hypocritical we were later on. And that just leads to…to more secrets, and lies. I know that Tom didn’t like you because he didn’t believe. This was a test.”

“It’s a twofold ability. A blessing, and a curse. I have to focus, or the memories have to be strongly associated with the object. Marinette left me a letter last night. Did you know?”

“I knew she snuck out. I thought that she was going to be with you. And I didn’t want her to do anything too impulsive.”

“I don’t know if I could say the same for Marinette, but there is no one else that I have ever wanted to marry. Marinette is the first person I’ve ever thought about marrying because I love her, and I want her to stay. But it isn’t worth me wanting if she doesn’t want it too. And I don’t want to repeat history.”

“I do not wish to have you repeat our history. Secrets are no good for both the bearers and the people they are kept from.”

Mrs. Cheng snatches her scarf up from the table. “Have a nice day.”

He isn’t sure what to make of it.

* * *

_ Luka, _

_ You’ve always been the one with the good memory, but I have recently found myself rendered unable to forget. I keep replaying our time together. You could probably do it in more detail given the necklace you gave to me, but I did my best to imprint as many memories as I could in this. I made sure I had the associations fresh in my head while writing this, so you could get a lot from this sheet of paper. Am I exploiting your abilities? Sure. But that isn’t what this letter is about. _

_ I still love you. I know that my parents didn’t exactly like you, but I want to get back together. I had a hair-trigger reaction to their reaction — I want them to keep loving me. But you are just as important to me. Sorry about that. I know that you probably don’t want anything to do with me anymore. _

_ We were both hurt when I broke up with you. And I know that I should probably treasure my parents more than you, but I love you. And if I have to leave them for you, then I can do that. A bird has to fly away from the next eventually, right? _

_ Yours, forever and always, _

_ Marinette. _

* * *

_ Marinette, _

_ Your mother got a reading from me this morning. She came in with a scarf, and most of the time readings of objects are to determine their past where it is unknown, but she wanted to give me information. The scarf in question was one that she had worn since her childhood growing up. It seems that she and your father faced many of the same struggles from her parents that we’re facing because of them. _

_ It was an apology. It was  _ definitely  _ meant as an apology to me. They got married in almost complete secret. They eloped. I’m not going to say that I want you that way, not quite — forever is a terrifying concept to someone as young as I am, to someone who doesn’t know what he’ll do with the rest of his life. But I would. You are one of the few people that I could imagine spending forever with. There  _ is  _ no one else, not in the way that you captivate me and make me more certain of one thing that rings over and over again in my head — I am afraid of forever, but I am not afraid to spend the rest of my life with you. _

_ I love you. And even if your father still hates me, even if he doesn’t approve, your mother disagrees. And she’ll back us up. _

_ I want to get back together, too. Meet me at the beach, and we can talk about it some more. _

_ Yours, as long as you’ll have me, _

_ Luka _

* * *

The beach is empty, as it normally is at night. This is just a small pond, after all, its diameter only a couple kilometres at most.

She hears the door opening and the footsteps before she sees Luka in the darkness.

He sits down next to her, interlacing their fingers.

She doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t either.

They need to talk later, but for now they can just be together. Nothing left to divide them.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me elsewhere online, if you want:  
> alto-tenure - main Tumblr  
> the-river-of-light - visual art Tumblr  
> beunforgotten - writing Tumblr  
> riverofliight - Twitter


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